Ashley Tostado, 18, holds up a sign for sharing on social media sites during the #GivingTuesday donation drive at Chapman University. EUGENE GARCIA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Following Thanksgiving on Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, Tuesday has never had much glory. Until now. For the second year, #GivingTuesday, a national campaign that promotes giving to nonprofits, made its mark locally and around the world.

Founded by New York cultural community center 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, #GivingTuesday is described by its mission statement as a movement, not an organization. It functions through its website but largely through social media platforms — hence the hash tag in its name. During last year’s first #GivingTuesday, more than 2,500 nonprofit organizations joined the campaign online. This year the number of partner organizations topped 10,000.

Organizations throughout Orange County observed the day and shared ways the public could give to their groups and others in need, their messages delivered via hash tag.

They spread the word on Twitter by using the phrase #GivingTuesday. Instead of the popular social media word “selfie” you’ll see the “#Unselfie” to show people were being charitable or encouraging others to do so.

In Orange, students at Chapman University held a donation drive for Casa Teresa, a homeless shelter for pregnant women.

Enactus, a student group that combines business skills with humanitarian efforts, collected clothes in the campus student union.

Jhosselyn Tostado, 20, a sophomore from Anaheim, organized the effort. She had reached out before to find some way to help Casa Teresa, but when she found out about #GivingTuesday recently, she decided to host a donation drive for the shelter and push the giving message.

“It’s kind of a way to get people to think that we just spent all of this money on Black Friday and maybe we should give a little bit back,” Tostado said.

“The pregnant women (at Casa Teresa) are probably the same age as some of the students here. Many don’t have the same opportunities we do and being a busy college student it’s easy to forget that there are people out there like that.”

During #GivingTuesday many groups advocated forfinancial donations and described online what services they provide. Some of them were Irvine-based HomeAid Orange County, a group that helps the homeless, Orange County Coastkeeper, a Costa Mesa clean water organization and Santa Ana’s Asian American Senior Citizens Service Center.

Other organizations throughout Orange County found creative ways to encourage the public to be charitable.

The breast health organization Susan G. Komen Orange County launched an online YouTube holiday jingle campaign to help raise money for mammograms. People and some celebrities sang about fundraising to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”

Camp Kesem, a nonprofit group that holds day-camps for children of cancer patients, set up a photo booth on the UCI campus to take pictures with the Kesem mascot. Participants were invited to share photos on social media sights with the #GivingTuesday hash tag and encourage the public to donate to Camp Kesem.

Tostado and other members of the Chapman group gathered in the student union in the afternoon and had cups of hot cocoa ready for those who donated. Donors could also take photos holding a sign they could personalize that promoted #GivingTuesday and read “I give because___.’’

Tostado said she was going to share the photos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Lyrissa Roman, development manager for Casa Teresa, said she was happy to be approached by the Chapman student group.

“I said that it was a great time to work together because #GivingTuesday was coming up,” Roman said.

“They’re hosting it for Casa Teresa, but they are pretty much reaching out to the student community to encourage giving in general,” she said.

Tostado is already making plans for next year’s #GivingTuesday.

She wants to get multiple campus groups involved and deliver the message to a wider audience.

“It could be awesome to incorporate all of those efforts together for one big cause,” she said.

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